[rick.oliver]

A number of questions have been raised in my mind by the different perspectives shared in the thread.

I think that advancing Kick Off to mid or late September would better address the issues (at least as I inferred them from the survey) than would eliminating Stop Build Day.

While I am "retired" as a mentor, I can state that I would have embraced the change.

I agree that it would facilitate training and inspiration. I don't think that it would necessarily inhibit outreach. I don't think that it would raise the ceiling very much. I do think that it could raise the floor and be a positive impact on "mid-tier" teams.

I think that it would enable participation (and therefore, inspiration) of a broader base of students, assuming teams were willing to deal with variable participation rates due to other activities and interests.

It would be a very different model.